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Monday, August 16, 2010

Can We Just Pretend Yesterday Didn't Happen?

Ever have one of those days when you feel like you just need a do-over? That was me yesterday.

Our otherwise fun trip took a turn for the worst. I thought the day would never end. I can laugh today but that's only because I treated myself to my first iced latte since starting this trip.

It started when I couldn't get the slide on the camper to come in so we could leave our campsite. If only I had known then that it was just the beginning... Our campground was in BFE, Michigan. There wasn't even a gas station in "town" but I finally found one and stopped to put air in my tires. I had noticed the tires were not looking good and I'm pretty irritated that they sold me a camper with 4 bad tires. Anyway, I got 40 miles down the road and blew a tire on the interstate.

I waited for nearly 2 hours for the roadside assistance guy to show up. When he did, I worried about what he might do to me. He had no teeth and smoked a cigarette as he lifted the spare tire from under my propane tanks!!! Actually, he turned out to be quite sweet And we both had a good laugh at my situation. I finally got on the road and decided to try to make it the rest of the 160 miles to Chicago because there were no tire stores open on a Sunday anyway.

Eight hours later, we arrived to our campground. This was after numerous stops to let the tires cool and me busting a u-turn on the front lawn of a church during the church service. (don't ask!) Our campground was beautiful but had no water hookups. We were 100 yards from the shore of Lake Michigan (literally!) and had no water. It wouldn't be a problem except that someone had stolen the cap to our fresh water tank so the tank was empty and dirty. Yuck. We walked a mile to get water from the marina and the kids convinced me to spend $17 on corndogs. (again, don't ask!)

We decided to stop at the beach and everyone loved the sand and water. I felt like a 12-year old with ADD as I tried to watch six kids going six different directions. Covered in sand and with no water in the camper to rinse with, we returned "home." It was then that we discovered that our darling dog had chewed through a window and door frame in the camper. And there was poop. Lots of it. Our dog won't poop when he's on a leash so he had held it awhile already. I cleaned up and had the kids wait in the van to escape the swarms of biting flies.

We got into the camper and had another potty incident and a spill. After I had just cleaned the floor three times!

Other highlights include: Nathan's black eye, Leila's mysteriously bleeding lips, 2 hours in bumper to bumper Chicago traffic with a huge camper, my hurt finger bumping into things, no wifi again, and not enough sleep. But don't get me wrong, we are still smiling (through the blood, sweat, and tears!)

I can't wait to post pictures but I need a wifi connection first. (I read the iPhone tethering only works if you cancel your data plan. Anyone know if that's true? I'm dying for Internet access and typing on my iPhone is so hard with no functioning index finger!)

Right now we are sitting here near Chicago waiting for the camper to get the new tires. I asked if they give a military discount and they don't so I asked if there was a discount for women with too many kids. They just laughed at me. I'm glad we are still laughing.

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About Me

I'm a Christian mom, Army wife, and doula. I've had 6 children in 5 years including not one, but two, sets of identical twins. I'm an advocate for homebirth and I gave birth to my twin girls on the floor of my own bedroom. (View my homebirth story here. ) I just survived a long deployment and a cross-country move with sanity mostly intact.